Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Kerry spanked

Last week John Kerry said: "President Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second." The multimillionaire patrician educated in private schools has now been spanked and spanked well:

"John Kerry is not a black man — he is a privileged white man who has no idea what it is in this country to be a poor white in this country, let alone a black man," said Paula Diane Harris, founder of the Andrew Young National Center for Social Change.

The libertarian purity test

Via Will Baude, who scored an 85, I took the Libertarian Purity Test. I scored a mere 24, which is probably about right: "You are a soft-core libertarian. With effort, you may harden and become pure." I note that a lot of the folks over at the Corner took the quiz too. Somebody should tally up all the blogosphere results, as Tim Lambert did on the Political Compass meme. (Update: Joe Carter is doing the tallying. Good man!) (Update 2: Score compiler Tim Lambert himself is also tallying, with a cool form that lets bloggers enter their own scores.)

Annoy France. Vote for Bush.

Although voting against Kerry will do if it comes down to that, lately I've been feeling like I need a reason to vote for Bush. (See, e.g., Yellow Dog Confessional.) Thank goodness, we can always count on the French to give you one. John Kerry is going around saying:

Without naming anybody, Kerry said he had received words of encouragement from leaders abroad who were eager to see him defeat Bush on Nov. 2. "I've met foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly, but boy they look at you and say, 'You've got to win this, you've got to beat this guy, we need a new policy,' things like that...."

I'm just speculating that our purported French allies are one of Kerry's sources, of course, but it sure sounds like Chirac to me.

Anti-Kerry Ad

Citizens United has put out an anti-Kerry ad that parodies the Mastercard "priceless" ads. It's pretty good, but be warned that it takes a VERY long time to download even over broadband.

More Martha Humor

Wizbang's weekly caption contest is extremely topical. Personally, I liked #2 best.

Martha’s Jail Blog

Jeremy Blachman has too much time on his hands, but then again idle hands are the devil's something or other.

Kaus, Gerrymandering, and Government by Initiative

Mickey "Permalinks? I don't need no stinkin' permalinks" Kaus writes:

If a triumphant Arnold Schwarzenegger really wants to transform California politics, he could sponsor a referendum ending the gerrymandering of state legislative districts. Instead of safe Republican seats and safe Democratic seats, he'd get lots of competitive seats--meaning more centrists and moderates. His kind of legislators.

I would be remiss at relentless self-promotion if I didn't point out that I suggested the very same thing on December 6th of last year! (See also December 10th.) Of course, as Kaus acknolwedges, Schwarzenegger beat us both to the punch with a campaign promise to do just that. Hey Arnold, we're waiting! (Related post: The Gubernator Flexes His Muscles.)

Yellow Dog Confessional

I have a confession: I support President Bush, but I don't especially like him. His smug anti-intellectualism (how can you be proud of not reading the newspaper?). Failure to rein in federal spending. Signing Sarbanes-Oxley. The new Medicare entitlement. Putting forward bold ideas (like immigration reform) but not following though on them. The unwillingness to acknowledge errors. Yale. Texas. The smirk. Oh well. He may be a yellow dog, but he's my yellow dog.